HubPages Marks The Spot - Official Contest Thread - Now with FAQ!

AHOY ME HEARTIES!!!Here's the official contest thread for HubPages Marks the Spot. Feel free to ask any questions you might have about the contest here.

We are now in Week 3 of the contest- the theme for this week is Local Highlights & Attractions, so all entries should be about local recreational sights, such as parks, hikes, historical areas, museums, picnic areas, haunted houses, and any other place to unwind or gawk at

Just for reference, you'll find all you need to know on our contest page

And fer those with extra questions, here are some of the most common ones, along with answers!!

Should I mark individual locations even if they're closely grouped?

ABSOLUTELY! Pinning markers in your map allows people to search for directions from their own starting point, for example, and makes everything seem concrete!

If I don't write an entry on the bonus topic, am I still eligible for the Daily Doubloon Drawing?

Yes. All contest entries of a particular day, so long as they're a minium of 300 words, related to the weekly topic, tagged and categorized correctly, and original, get an entry in the Daily Doubloon Drawing.

Bonus topic entries are only special in that they get two extra entries in the Daily Doubloon Drawing, so they've got a slightly higher chance of winning.

For some reason, my #HubPagesContes hashtag on Bonus Topic Entry tweets isn't coming up in searches. What do I do?

Include @HubPagesDotCom in your tweet as well. This will ensure we wee the entry! Alternately, you can submit your entry on the Facebook page.

How do I know if my Bonus Topic twitter entry was found and counted?

If your tweet shows up in this search then you'll know your entry will be counted.

If it doesn't show up, but still has the #HubPagesContest hashtag, and shows up in this search, then rest assured that it will still be counted.

Where on the Facebook page do I submit my Bonus Topic entry?

The URL of your Bonus Topic entry should be submitted as a comment on the Facebook wall post about that day's bonus topic. See the image below for an example:

I posted by bonus topic entry on the Facebook page, but now it isn't there. Why?

Per our general forum rules, we delete links posted on our Facebook page, unless they're particularly relevant. All links that are contest-related should be posted as replies to Daily Bonus Topic wall posts

How can I be sure that my hub is within the weekly topic, or the daily bonus topic?

First, check the contest page and read the weekly topic descriptions. If you're still not sure, send Simone a message and she'll let you know.

How can I be sure that my hub is published within the right time period-for weekly topics, but also for Daily Bonus topics?

i hope no one asked this question yet. i am a little confused about the word 'local'...does this mean we can only write about places where we live, or can we write about places not local to us? i have two neat-o places in mind, both far away from where i live.

I know a little town in rural Ontario Canada called Hastings. Population 2,500. It's about 50 miles or 100 km. ENE; from Toronto where I live.

If you are interested in buying farm fresh, meats, ie,beef, pork, lamb,or poultry,chicken,capons, turkey,duck,goose pheasant,and eggs, or some of the best quality farm fresh fruits,cherries berries as they come in season, or vegetables in bulk quantities then it would be a great idea to get to know some of the farmers of this quaint little rural Indian Reservation town.

My wife loves thr freshness of the produce especially the corn when in season and we don't buy just a few, it's like 30 or more ears at a time,fresh,sweet, right off the stocks. My wife also enjoys going into the fields to pick her own of what ever she happens to be in the mood for, berries,cherries,tomato,squash,eggplant you name it and we can find it when it's in season potatoes is always on our list of must buys, as they can be found all year round.

If you happen to wander into the town itself, you have to visit the various shops, for such things as real maple syrup,bakery items like fresh breads pies and cakes and of course their fresh grown prize Honey. There even happens to be a couple of rainbow trout farms near by and you can actually fish your own trout for a tasty dinner.

As far as buying the meats are concerned, they are all government standard and above and it is always best to buy in bulk like a half cow or calf, a full pig a whole lamb, because the less work the farmer has to do, the less it will cost you to buy.

My dad was born and raised in this area, and would bring me with him when he was setting out to purchase things like this for our family, so I got to know the farmers dad dealt with, and they got to know me. This is a good thing, cuz farmers will always sell cheaper to someone they know and charge full price to a stranger, and the quality is always guaranteed fresh.

Two special bonuses that draws me to this little town is that because it is part of an Indian reservation, I can pick up my cigarettes, for next to nothing, plus the gas service stations on the reserve don't charge tax, so gasoline is like 15 cents cheaper than the outside gas bars, and the folks are friendlier too.

I submitted two hubs for the The HubMob Weekly topic Wed. I prepared two drafts last nite, as I knew I wouldn't have time today. Since I had already put it in the right category, I just listed it on the thread instead of starting another hub. Is that okay?

What matters is that the hub was...1. Published after 12:00pm PT on Wednesday2. Categorized somewhere within the Travel and Places category3. Given the htmswk1 tagIf those requirements were met, it should be fine!

I was having a bit of a problem last night with the google maps capsule and started it over a couple of times. I finally got it right after a few tries - it does work, but when I put it on hybrid, sometimes it shows up with map only - here is a tutorial:

Yikes! I published a hub last night (not a daily topic) and forgot to include the weekly tag hmtswk1 until just now (about 3 minutes before the noon Pacific daily cycle). Will it still be eligible for the daily drawing and weekly picks?

Sorry I am a day and half behind but can I still join the contest. I think it will be a lot of fun and good challenge for me. I did not see anywhere to sign up, is it just the category and tags that lets them know you are participating? Thanks for any info.

I tip me pirate hat to ye bonnie lasses!There were so many good entries for our first day of the contest... everyone who entered seems to be an old salt at the location-writing game, so it's game on, bucaneers! I be lookin' forward to what be comin' next!

ANAAARRRRTHER day of location-hubbing comes to a close, and boy, was it ever hard for us at HPHQ to pick a Treasure of the Day from the many super-super qualified entrants. For some of us, it was downright painful. Thank goodness the Daily Doubloon Drawing is random! Well, with no further ado, I present to you today's winners:

WOW ! Thanks Simone for the wonderful news. I am honored. The fun part is that my daughter just ordered home delivery from Beijing Bites , one of the Chinese restaurants I wrote about in my hub, and I sat down to check my inbox. And what a delightful surprise!

Here is my entry for the HubPagesContest Bonus Topic: local pub crawls!

I have tried several times to tweet it using the correct hashtag and even tried replying to the twitter post. Also can't seem to post to the wall on your facebook.I will keep trying. Who were the winners yesterday?

Hi Phoenix V - I see every one of your tweets, and also see that you published your hub within the deadline and that it is correctly categorized and tagged.We haven't announced winners for Friday/Saturday and Saturday/Sunday entrants because weekend entries are announced the following Monday at noon, so not to worry!! All be well, me hearty! Your hub's in ship shape and the loot's yet to be distributed!

Wootie woo! I am honored to have won! This is really causing me to have fun and live again. (outside the cave) In doing these Hubs, I am supporting the restaurant industry, and the Breweries for sure! Thank ya' all!

Way to go, akirchner! A Treasure of the Day one day, and the Daily Doubloon Drawing the next! And congrats, Om Paramapoonya, on writing the Treasure of the Day- the competition was FIERCE, but your streamlined, professional polish, fabulous formatting, and balanced sharing (of the good AND not-so-perfect) tipped the loot in your direction!

Hahaa- sorry about that. Since our Daily Bonus Topics are 100% optional, we removed the countdown calendar to avoid confusion. We're -9 hours away from you though, so if you just factor that into the time constraints, it should work out just fine!

Thanks, Simone - I had no idea! I started getting tags on Monday about congratulations and finally found ya'll over here. I am always a day late and a dollar short...although in this case, I guess I can't say that!! That is fantastic!! Thanks so much but am truly enjoying reading the other hubs as they are all so well done.

Ah! Also keep in mind that you can add tags after publishing. So long as the correct weekly tag has been added before 11:59am before the deadline, it'll count!

All you'll need to do is...1. Make sure you're logged in2. Go to the hub of interest3. Scroll down until you see your tags on the right-hand sidebar4. Enter in the contest tag/keyword in the box that says "add tag" at the side5. Click "add tag"

I tweeted the cheap lunch spot bonus and see some results of people tweeting that hashtag but never see my results of the tweet to confirm its there. Its odd because any other hashtag post will show all those that have tweeted on that hashtag.

Thanks PhoenixVYou're right- I don't quite know what's going on with those hashtags, though I did see your tweet because you added @HubPagesDOTcom. I'm going to add a note about doing so in the contest rules, so that from now on, there will be no chance of loosing potential entries (though we've been careful to check the past ones and haven't let any qualifying entries fall through the cracks )Are you still having difficulty adding the link as a reply to the Facebook post? Perhaps that's a safer way to go for the time being, if your tweets continue to not show the hashtag.

Yay! Thanks Simone I thought it was just me lol. I dont know what the deal is with Twitter either its been very glitchy overall. Luckily its getting tweeted out cross tweetland so at least maybe Hubpages and the contest and our hubs are still getting promoted , which is good for all of us and probably what Hubpages intended. I will keep trying on FB as well.

I have a question about the times to enter my hub in the contest for week 2. Am I supposed to publish after noon on Wednesday for week 2? and if I am in central time what time will that make it for me to publish in order not to be early or late? Hope that doesnt sound stupid. LOL

Remember that the week 1 topic of restaurants, bars, and the like will be over in less than 24 hours now- so if there's anything more you'd like to say about places to tank up on food and grog or wind down after a long day o' pillagin', now's your chance!

Hi dashingclaire - for this hub to become an entry, you need to add the "hmtswk1" tag to it.

To do so...1. Make sure you're logged in2. Go to the hub of interest3. Scroll down until you see your tags on the right-hand sidebar4. Enter in the contest tag/keyword in the box that says "add tag" at the side5. Click "add tag"

Yah, it's 3:00pm eastern time! I see you made it, though you missed the #HubPagesContest hashtag. We've been having some trouble with that in the past couple of days though, so because you included @HubPagesDOTcom, we'll count it!

I see your tweet, PhoenixV, and you did it correctly. One way you can be sure you get our attention is to include @HubPagesDOTcom in your tweet- we can be SURE that that'll come up in a search.Facebook is definitely the easiest way to make sure your posting is successful.

Oh, yes- that's always the case, but it's also searchable when it contains certain keywords or hashtags, which is why we include #HubPagesContest - that way we know who enters!There has been some weirdness with the hashtags not coming up in searches though, so we advise that you include @HubPagesDOTcom in the entries too, so that we are 100% sure we'll get it.That said, Facebook is another way to submit bonus topic entries, so if you're not comfortable with Twitter, there is an alternative.Also, keep in mind that this is only for two bonus entries in the Daily Doubloon Drawing, so you do not have to utilize these things when participating in the contest- they're all optional XD

It is with a bit of sadness that I announce the final winners of week 1's 'Restaurants, Bars, and the Like' theme, because the hubs were so much fun to read, but I am sure that this week's theme of 'Shopping and Services' will be even better!

Ahoy me hearties, cough cough, well here is my contest entry for bonus topic today which is about my favorite physiotherapists in the Goulburn Valley. When I saw the topic I new straight away who I would write about, these guys have rehabilitated me and restored my independance, over 2 years of treatment. Best Physiotherapists in The Goulburn Valley

Hi Simone, thankyou very much. I finally got the map capsule to work. It wasn't loading correctly, so i couldn't input the details, all I had to do in the end was clear my cache, it then displayed properly and worked great. Thanks for all your help.

Wow! I just got home and checked my account,(not to see if I won) but to finish a hub I started earlier. I am so grateful for your kind words. I never expected to win, I just wanted to participate in something that felt like truly being part of the HubPages community and it has been such fun!

I feel like I have an advantage because not only have we lived in several places, we also live within an hour to three major cities and within 2 hrs of the Atlanta metro area. So we go to all of them often (because we live in the sticks).

Thanks so much to all! I guess I better get back to work, I see there are so many other great hubs out there!

Congrats to the 1st weeks winners! akirchner and Om Paramapoonya. great work! and my partner in crime Kyriana...good job!

You have no idea how happy you just made me! Thank you so much, Simone and HP. And congrats to all the winners. Akirchner, MyMastiffPuppies and Kyriana, I wish we all could do a victory dance together! Kekekeeeeeeeeee (my mischievous giggle)

Congratulations to all the winners!Some really exciting entries and truly inspiring winners! This contest opens up a new vista of places, which we get to see and experience through the hubber's eyes.O, BTW, can ye Contest Winners churn out more Prize winning hubs while ye dance?

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)